“It must be getting on two and a half years ago now,” Pyro starts, blinking slowly as though wading through memories. “Cad would probably be able to supply the exact dates. You know, this shit’s been going around and around my head, but for the life of me, I can’t remember anything suspicious. He came around the club as a hangaround for a few weeks. We had an opening for a prospect, he jumped at the chance.”
“Jumped?” Dad’s eyes light up. “Overeager?”
But Pyro gives a negative shake. “Nah. Many men like our lifestyle, especially when they’ve been hanging around and have come to our parties, where, er, anything goes. They get a taste of the reward which might be at the end of their prospecting days. Like myself, many are attracted to the idea of being part of a brotherhood, a team. We test those who express an interest, make sure they know the hard work they’ll have to expect. Of course, some don’t make the grade as they don’t understand the concept of putting their backs into everything and anything asked. So, yeah, I’ve seen prospects come on board all excited to have a stab at being part of the club, and Skull was no different.”
“He made the grade,” Dad ponders. “He work extra hard to make it?”
Pyro huffs a laugh. “Skull shouldn’t be underestimated. If he was perfect, then that might have raised more than one eyebrow. He did enough to get by, no more, no less. And like a lot of prospects knew the places to hide and the excuses to get out of some of the shittiest jobs.”
Dad nods, taking it all in.
“You beat him…” I say, hoping to speed this up.
Dad’s eyes open wide.
Pyro shakes his head at me. “That came later, and yeah, I’ll go into that too. But I’m answering your dad’s question.” I pretend to zip my lips, making Pyro smile. Then he turns back to my father. “We don’t take people on lightly. When someone comes into the club, they are stepping into our lives, into our family. Lots of people want to join, not everyone makes it. They go through a probationary period until we know they’re a good fit, can be trusted, and are going to be loyal.”
“To sum up, he passed your test, and you trusted him. Would he have known any information about the club prior to that point?”
“No,” Pyro responds. “Well, not in detail. Prospects don’t come to church and aren’t given the same information as patched members. With time, they may learn more of the type of shit they need to keep to themselves, but not enough to bring us down. By the point we ask them to bury a body, we’re usually pretty certain they can be trusted. Or, the hole they just dug will be for themselves.”
As Dad laughs, I cast a sideways glance at Pyro, wondering whether he’s serious or joking.
“What’s your process? How do you test a man?”
“Push him to his limits. See what he’s capable of doing. Prospects can do anything from serving behind a bar to cleaning shit from the toilet. If they are asked to clean a member’s bike with their toothbrush, if they want the patch badly enough, they’ll do it with a smile.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Pyro
I may have mentioned burying a body but luckily both Mel and her dad thought I was joking. Though another look at Mel’s face suggests she’s not quite as certain as Rufus. Whether I was serious or not is something she’ll never know. That would come firmly under the heading of club business.
“Skull, or the man we now know as Donavon Jordan, passed all this with flying colours?” her dad asks.
“Yes.” I grimace. “Of course, he wasn’t Skull then, but as a hangaround he used the name Kris Cox. When he started to prospect, we called him Runt.” I break off, shaking my head. “How the fuck does he keep track of all his names?” It’s a rhetorical question, no one answers, which prompts me to resume. “Well, he looked like a skinny kid, and among our other prospects, resembled the reject of the litter. Of course, that he accepted the handle without complaint was all part of the process, as you called it.”
“Mel said you beat him? Part of the test?” Rufus’ expression has hardened.
“No, but in his case, it was the turning point.” I sit forward and clasp my hands between my legs, staring at Mel’s father intensely. “We had a situation, someone was fuckin’ with the club.”
“How?”
I shrug. “A dead body was left in the dumpster behind our strip club. Turned out to be a dead tramp who died of natural causes, but it got the cops’ eyes on us. Then there were parts going missing from the auto-shop, even a drive-by shooting at the compound, though no serious injuries thank fuck. Things were escalating, and we had to bring it to a stop. Everything pointed to it being Skull, or Runt as he was then, who was behind it. We, er, tried to get him to admit it.”
“By using your fists?
By using torture.
“Pyro, if I’m going to represent Mel in court, I need to know everything. If I don’t, and information’s thrown at me I’m not aware of, our whole case could come undone. You tell me it all, and I’ll decide how I use the information but only as far as the case goes. You’re protected by attorney/client privilege. If I don’t need to use it, the information stays here in this room.” He stares at me for a moment, then adds, “Skull, Runt, or whatever you want to call him, you can be sure he won’t keep quiet about it if turns out to be relevant.”
He’s got a point. I swallow hard a couple of times. “It wasn’t a proud moment for the club, but the trouble was escalating. We tried to persuade him to tell us, but he wouldn’t. Didn’t know at the time it was because he couldn’t, nothing was down to him, even though it appeared to be.”
“Appeared to be?” Rufus parrots.
“Skull was in the right places at the right times. He was the common denominator. All the evidence pointed his way.”
Again, Rufus’ face hardens. “Am I right to suggest you used torture to get him to admit it?”
I nod. “I wasn’t personally involved, but yeah. He was hurt, not too badly, as another member found out the truth and Skull’s… interrogation… was immediately halted, but psychologically? Must have been a point when he thought he wasn’t going to walk free.”
He casts an eye toward his daughter. “This trouble with the club. It stopped?”
I raise and lower my head again. “The member who was actually behind it isn’t with us any longer and won’t be causing trouble again.” Not going to admit he’s buried six feet under out in the desert. Rufus might want full disclosure, but I’ll say nothing that might bring harm on my club.
For a few seconds, Rufus stares at me intently, as if trying to read whether his daughter will be in any danger if she continues her association with the club. I gaze back just as earnestly. It’s him who breaks first, accepting I’ve been honest in what I’ve said. “What happened with Skull?”
“He left the club. We thought it would be permanent. We’d destroyed his trust in us.”
“But he must have come back?”
“He did.” I frown, remembering it. “He told us that he wanted to be part of the loyal brotherhood we’d shown ourselves to be. He’d been impressed by how we banded together to protect what was ours. He said he understood why we’d made him hurt, that if the positions were reversed, he’d have no reservations in doing the same. Brotherhood, to him, was everything. He became a full member, and that’s when he got a new name. Runt became Skull, because he had a hard head.”
“And you trusted him because of what he said. Probably some guilt involved due to the way you treated him.” Rufus frowns. “Good way for an undercover man to get on the inside.”
“We remained unsure for a while,” I said, thinking back. “It wasn’t expected, we thought he might be out for revenge. He was watched, but never put a foot out of line. As the months passed, particularly when he claimed Mel as his ol’ lady, we relaxed. He became as trusted as any member. But,” I raise my hand to show I’m not finished, “when he went missing, we considered all options. Of course, thoughts circled back to what had happened before, and wondered
whether he’d bided his time waiting for vengeance. We couldn’t understand how or why he disappeared off the face of the earth, and one consideration was whether he was setting something up.”
“That’s why you called us all in on lockdown?” Mel asks, and I have to remember this is new to her. “You said it was because he could have been taken by an unknown enemy of the club.”
“That was a possibility too, Mel, but unlikely. We don’t have enemies, so yeah, we suspected Skull instead.” I inwardly shudder at the memory of me checking over what we thought might have been bombs.
“So,” Rufus starts to sum up, “you never fully trusted him, but there was nothing to suggest why. You put the doubts on the back burner, and nevertheless, you gave him his patch.”
“Some of the distrust may be me looking in hindsight,” I admit, then remember what had come up at one of our churches. “Wraith, the VP of the mother chapter in Tucson warned Demon to watch him, but as Skull settled in as a member he said and did all the right things.”
“What did Wraith pick up on that you didn’t?”
I shrug. “I can’t answer that. I know Demon kept a close eye on him after Wraith raised his concerns, but he was the model member.” I raise my eyes toward Rufus. “We never fuckin’ suspected anything close to the truth.”
Rufus nods. “Did Skull know there was an undercurrent of distrust?”
“We didn’t discuss it in front of him. I can’t tell you whether he picked anything up.”
“Okay. Moving on. When did he approach you, Melissa?”
I raise my hand. “Mel doesn’t know the implications of the timeline. I’ll say this first. It wasn’t long after he patched in that he said he had a woman he’d like to bring around the club. See if she liked us, and if we were going to accept her.”
“That the usual way you do things?”
“Not normally, but then, Colorado doesn’t have many old ladies. Pal arrived with his woman, Jay, Buzz has been married to Sindy for years, same with Bomber and Hellfire with their old ladies. But going by the other clubs, when members find a woman they like, they’re prepared to walk through hell and high water for them, even offering to give up their patch if the club doesn’t vote them in.”
“So what Skull was proposing was different?”
“He was a new member, fresh to the table. Didn’t think too much of it at the time. But if Mel hadn’t liked his new brothers, or we didn’t take to her, it might have made him reconsider getting deeper into a relationship with her. In a way it seemed sensible to check her out, and for her to see if she liked the lifestyle.” I glance her way, but she doesn’t seem hurt, just interested.
In fact, she speaks up for herself. “That’s the way he sold it to me too. Though, to me, he said he’d leave the club if I didn’t like it.” She pouts, then adds, “Which was just another one of his lies.”
“Yes,” Rufus surmises, sparing a glance of sympathy toward his daughter. “If Melissa hadn’t worked out, his intention was probably that he’d move on to another woman who was more suitable.”
I glance at Mel quickly. Her father’s gotten to the heart of it. Her face has gone tight, but I think she’s already accepted she was the means to Skull finding out more about the club.
“Looking back,” he addresses his daughter, “does this fit the facts as you saw them then?”
Mel takes over. “Yes.” I reach for her hand, it trembles. “He targeted me as he thought I was someone who’d fit. I was not a person anyone would be suspicious of meeting. It was an odd coupling, as he was so much younger.”
“Appeared to be,” I put in tersely.
“Well,” she shrugs, “his appearance worked. What woman wouldn’t be flattered that a younger man wanted her?”
“Any man in his right fuckin’ mind would want you, Mel,” I growl, vowing I’ll spend the rest of my days making her believe it.
I notice a hard look has crossed her dad’s face as he realises how little self-confidence she has, and how much Skull weakened even that.
“He inveigled himself into your life. You brought him to meet us.”
Mel nods. “He led me to believe it was serious.”
“Your mom and I thought it was.”
Rufus hasn’t seen serious yet. Just wait until I can demonstrate how much I feel for his daughter. Now, though, is not the right time.
“Tell me about getting pregnant.”
I can see Mel’s shifting a little awkwardly in her seat, uncomfortable addressing the topic in front of Rufus, so I wink at her. “Well, you see a man has…”
“Pyro!” she gasps.
Her dad chuckles. “I don’t need that level of detail. Though I do need to ask some personal stuff. Who was responsible for contraception?”
Mel’s now bright red. I send her a chin lift of encouragement, while wishing I didn’t have to listen to this. But if it gets to a court, she’s going to need to become immune to discussing the private details of her life.
“He was,” she says, after taking a deep breath. “He used condoms. One night he didn’t, and we got away with it. The next time, well, you know the rest.”
“Was there any discussion about using them or not? Did he give you the choice?”
Mel shakes her head. “It was, er, in the throes of passion shall we say? He forgot, and I, well, I didn’t notice.”
“Tell your dad what happened the next time,” I prompt. “Skull’s reaction when he realised.”
“It was when Beef got patched over. We’d both had a few drinks at the party which followed, well him a lot more than me. When he realised what he’d done, he became angry when I refused to consider the morning-after pill.” She wipes her eye which is clearly watering. “He said something about bad timing and walked out. Stayed away all night but came back the next morning and said he’d come to his senses. Then not quite two weeks after that, he was gone.”
Now it’s Rufus’ face that’s gone red. “He was angry?” He leans forward. “Did he hurt you, Melissa?”
“Only with words,” she says fast. “He was more annoyed with himself than me.”
“Hold on.” I motion to them both to give me a moment. “He mentioned 'bad timing'? Did he explain that at all?”
She shakes her head.
Rufus sits back. “Could be he already knew his assignment was ending. This is a man who in his real life already has a woman and child. Of course, he didn’t want to take risks with you. Yet, down to his own stupidity, he did.” He pauses and breathes deeply trying to get himself under control. I realise then how hard this will be as a father representing his daughter, and how difficult it must be to separate his professional interest from the personal one.
“He didn’t need Mel just for sex,” I explain. “He could, and before he got with Mel, did, get that easily from the club girls.”
Rufus looks at me sharply. “You have women hanging around your club?”
I come clean. “We have five sweet butts, club whores.” At his thinly veiled expression of disgust, I explain, “Whether or not we’re into legal or illegal shit, we like to keep club business close. By having women who depend on the club, we can keep it in the family, if you like. They are there for the benefit of the members and for what they get out of it. And before you ask, they’re there voluntarily and free to leave at any time.”
“And what exactly do they get out of it?”
“Board, lodging, pocket money, and bikers who give them a good time. If they didn’t enjoy what they do, they wouldn’t stay.”
He seems slightly appeased.
“You said Skull went with these women?”
“Yes, when he was first patched in. Though not from the time he met Mel.” I’ve confirmed that. I asked them. “He wouldn’t have been thought any the worse of if he had an old lady and used the whores too. Not that anyone in our club does that, but in others? Well, it’s considered part of the lifestyle. But the fact is, Skull did not.”
“He was, however, stepping
out on his wife.”
My shoulders rise and fall. “What we saw was a man who committed to his ol’ lady once he found her.”
I notice Mel’s still holding the water she’d been given an hour or so ago and hasn’t touched it. Leaning forward, I take the glass out of her hands and place it on the desk in front of us. “You okay, darlin’?”
She gives a small rise and dip of her head. I send a pointed glare toward her father.
He takes the hint. “Let me get a few more details, then the two of you can get some rest. Just talk me through what happened when Skull disappeared.”
“Mel was a mess,” I speak for her. It’s hard for me not to choke up as I take my mind back to those initial days. “We didn’t know whether he was dead or alive, whether he left voluntarily or had been taken. Club took the decision to go on lockdown, that means bringing everyone in who might be a target so we can protect them, family as well as club members. When nothing happened, it seemed the most likely scenario was that he’d had an accident, and we just hadn’t found him.”
“You reported him missing?”
“To the cops, yes. Mel found out she was pregnant. Skull had known it was a possibility, but he never checked.” At this point I’m speaking through gritted teeth. “I stepped up, at first because he was my brother, and then, well, I’ve always held Mel in the highest respect. My feelings grew and changed as we spent more time together.”
Rufus looks from me to Mel, then back to me again. “Your relationship…” he starts, pauses, then continues, after coughing to clear his throat, “you became close… physically?”
“No,” I say fast. “Not that I didn’t want to, can’t deny that. But Mel was grieving, she needed time to come to terms with her man’s disappearance. We moved slowly, until the point came when both of us were ready to take the next step. But events interfered with that. Mel and I became…” I’m equally at a loss as to how to admit to him I’ve fucked his daughter, “close, only very recently.”
Satan’s Devils MC -Colorado Box Set: Books 4-6 Page 31
